Hangover

O yeah, the party boi is back! Woohoo!!! ;p

Crash

There were times when, during some of my many solitary musings, I wondered how I never figured in any major accidents before. Not that I was wishing for it, mind you; in fact, I was thankful not to have been involved with any instance of that sort. It's just that it had occurred to me that I have been relatively safe my whole life.

Until today.

On my way back to the office from researching elsewhere (a story for another time, hehe), I experienced my first road accident. Seated at the back of the cab reading my research, I felt everything move in slow motion the way it does in movies. The cab driver's deep intake of breath accompanied by a strong thud of his foot on the break, the view of the car in front of us as the distance between the two cars became less and less every second, and my keen awareness of my cab's sliding motion as it swayed both me and the driver to an eventual hit. Everything was in slow motion until the actual crash--when everything almost instantly played in fast forward. This included the crashing sound by the destroyed hood, the sudden jolt of the car and me being smashed at the back of the  passenger seat--all in a quarter of a second.

It was weird--the feeling of everything slowing down then almost as suddenly jerking in fast forward without you knowing any better. It's as if you were given one last chance to view everything without its complicity before it's literally snatched away from you.

What's more and what's really weird was that, despite the real danger I was in, at the back of my head, I felt like laughing. I felt like saying, "ah, so that's how it feels like to crash into another car." 

Talk about one person being a total psycho. Tsk Tsk. 

Maybe it was because I knew my life wasn't in any real danger. Maybe it was that I was safe because I was at the back of the car. I dunno. But whatever it was, it got me thinking. If I can laugh at the face of danger, if I can face disaster and still maintain a laughing composure, does it mean I'm brave? Or does it mean I'm just one stupid fool ready to die?

Dunno. Argh.

Makati during weekends

Makati is different during the weekends. There are less people, less traffic. It becomes a breeze traveling through Makati Avenue; no unnecessary hold up at the intersection of Jupiter street, nor at Gil Puyat avenue. Even the air seems to exude a certain freshness peculiarly absent when people are bustling around. It feels unrestricted and, literally, roomy.

Which was also the feeling I had when I entered the office yesterday. The lack of any other lawyers shuffling one paper too many made me feel relaxed. I wasn't too careful and composed when I did my business. My speakers were on, the whole room was filled with music I like and no one was there to be bothered with it. Even the use of Lex Libris was better. I didn't have to be conscious of using all the software windows for fear that others may not be able to access the same (only a certain number of windows can be opened at any given time due to license issues).

Yes, Makati is different during the weekends. And I like it.

There is something to be said about rediscovering the beauty of a place that has seemingly lost its splendor due only to familiarity. The once overwhelming structures and buildings which dissolve in the background weeks after their first viewing reclaim their wonder when, in a single day, the monotony of routine is broken. When the wave of the same thing disappears and alerts the mind that something is different, when the mind sharpens its senses once more in hope of identifying that which has become different, we discover the most wonderful things. We perceive that which has always been there yet we have never seen, or better yet, that which we have already seen but soon forgotten.

Funny how this happens to most of us most of the time. How we allow ourselves to get jaded with so many inconsequential things and events and routine that we are unable to see new ones as they come; or worse, how we allow ourselves to get swallowed by monotony that we forget what we have always known and truly enjoyed before. 

Like home. Like friends. Like love.

Or even like the love of writing. 

I wonder if, like Makati during the weekends, I can look at myself constantly in a different light, in an angle I have never seen before, and remember those that I have already forgotten, do the activities I haven't done in a long while, and write the insights that have already been suppressed to the recesses of my mind.

I wonder if I could re-invent myself and manifest a change that others, even the closest of my friends, would be surprised to discover. 

If only to re-live the wonders that come with them.

If only to free some clutter in my life to make room for another someone.

If only to shine anew for those that have already gone by.

Yes, Makati is different during the weekends. And I like it.

Incompetence

I was looking at my files before leaving from work today, when I saw this blog entry which I wrote two weeks ago (and yes, it was at a time when I was still not doing much in the office, hehe). Anyway, here it is.

1 August 2008

Grrr. I have had it with government bureaucracy. Today, I headed to a government office to clarify some registration requirements provided for in the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Naturally, I proceeded to the Office of Legal Affairs to talk to a lawyer who, presumably, should know the requirements of their office. 

But no (u-huh, and you see this coming), all she did was refer me to another agency and blamed them for coming up with a "vague" implementing rules and regulations (IRR). Hello! The hell about the IRR; the law specifically points to her office for a certification that is a requirement. Why the freaking hell doesn't she know about it? And worse, couldn't the lawyer and her office staff be bothered to check the law, which, by her admission, is so vague even she couldn't decipher what it means? Couldn't she spare a minute or so to call her counterpart in that other agency, and discuss the law which causes confusion? Isn't that supposed to be her job?

But more than this, if the lawyer in that agency didn't know about it, how should any company looking to invest in the Philippines know about it? It's bad enough that there are so many requirements that need be submitted; but for the government agencies not to know about them? I don't think it's acceptable. 

Not by a long mile. 

No wonder foreign investors don't favor the Philippines. Argh.

P.S.

Makmak, yes, I have seen that you tagged me. I promise to make my entry as soon as I can, hehe. ;p

Blabbering

It's 9:30, Sunday evening, and I find that I have nothing to do. Well, not really, I have to review a case first thing tomorrow and it would be helpful if I start some reading now. But somehow, I find this time not right for that. Instead, I feel gravitated towards my macbook, to bask my eyes in the glaring radiation only to surf the net (as if my eyes haven't been stressed enough by the regular exposure to it during work days, argh). 

I suppose after everything, after all that keeps me busy nowadays, it is still the net that I turn to during these times when I have nothing else to keep me busy with. Others turn to TVs, DVDs, or MP3s. I, however, like many others, turn to the comfort of the net. And when this happens, of course, I blog. Even if I have nothing good to write about. Even if no good insight really comes from my mind. 

Like now. 

I just want the pressure off. I just want some avenue to release some leaking creative juice. I just want to type away even if I have nothing to say.

Weird, huh?